JORDAN

legal system: based on Islamic law and French codes; judicial review of legislative acts in a specially provided High Tribunal

legislative system: bicameral National Assembly (Majlis al-'Umma) consist of Senate and House of Representatives

judicial system: Court of Cassation, Supreme Court

religion: Muslim majority; Christian minority

death row: 94, including around 10 women, according official source of the Ministry of Justice, as of March 2017

year of last executions: 0-0-0

death sentences: 4

executions: 0

international treaties on human rights and the death penalty:

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Convention on the Rights of the Child

Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Statute of the International Criminal Court (which excludes the death penalty)

situation:The legal system in Jordan is based on Islamic law for both civil and criminal matters, except for non-Muslim communities’ members. Thirty-eight crimes are punishable by death in Jordan, as stipulated in five laws: Military Penal Code, Penal Code, Guns and Ammunitions Law, State Secrets Law and Narcotics Law. However, in August 2006, Jordan abolished the death penalty for crimes related to drugs, weapons and explosives. In 2010, amendments to the Jordanian Penal Code removed the death penalty for crimes of armed rebellion against the constitutional authorities and arson resulting in death, replacing it with a maximum of 30-year-jail sentence. Article 93 of the Constitution reads that “no death sentence may be carried out unless ratified by the King. Every such sentence shall be submitted to him by the Council of Ministers along with the council’s view on it.” On 21 December 2014, eight years after Jordan suspended its death penalty, eleven murder convicts were executed by hanging in the Swaqa corrections and rehabilitation centre. Earlier 2014, several Jordanian lawmakers called for unfreezing the implementation of capital punishment in order to curb the recent rise in crime rates. Capital punishment had not been carried out since 2006 only due to His Majesty King Abdullah’s will and not out of an official stance. Two executions were carried out in 2015 [See Chapter “The War on Terror”]. Three new death sentences were imposed in 2015, one for rape, the other two for murder. At the end of 2015, there were 114 people on death row. No execution is recorded in 2016 and 14 new death sentences were imposed according Hands off Cain.In 2017, 15 people have been executed, 10 of them for terrorism-related acts, in what is considered as the largest number of people executed in one day in Jordan's recent history. According to official judicial sources, 94 people - including around 10 women - remain on death row in Jordan, most of them convicted of murder or rape, as of March 2017. Hands off Cain collected news of at least 16 death sentences – including two women - , 6 of which were by the Court of Cassation.On 20 October 2017, the Government of Jordan said before the UN Committee on Human Rights in Geneva that according to a recent study, 81 per cent of the Jordanian population supported the retention of the death penalty.

The War on Terror On 22 April 2014, the House of Representatives endorsed the draft anti-terrorism law, maintaining the death penalty for certain crimes tagged as terror acts. In a rare case concerning such an important law, the lawmakers debated the bill and okayed it in one day, through morning and evening meetings. Those who commit terrorist crimes that result in the death of innocent people, partial or total damage of facilities and buildings, and entail the use of explosives, poisons, chemical, biochemical or radioactive materials, face the death sentence, according to the draft bill. Any attempt on the life of the King, the Queen or Crown Prince, or any act that entails armed insurgency against legitimate authorities is listed as a terrorist crime. Minister of Interior Hussein Majali said the draft bill considers only hostile actions against legitimate authorities as terrorist crime, “but not those against illegitimate authorities.” His remarks came in response to several MPs’ remarks on excluding actions of resistance against Israeli authorities from this bill. “The [Israeli] occupation is not a legitimate authority,” hence resisting it is not considered an act of terrorism, Majali explained. According to human rights activists say militants are put on trial in military courts that are unconstitutional and lack proper legal safeguards, adding that there are growing cases of mistreatment and of extracting confessions under duress.There was a huge internaional outcry, when, on 4 February 2015, Jordan executed two Al-Qaeda prisoners by hanging in retaliation for the killing of a Jordanian pilot by the Islamic State (IS) group. Twenty-six-year-old Lt. Muath Al-Kaseasbeh was burned alive by Islamic State militants, according to a purported video of the violence released on 3 February. In 2017, Jordan executed in one day 15 people, of them 10 for terrorism, the largest number of people in Country's recent history. Hands off Cain recorded at least 6 death sentences for terrorism, 5 by the Court of Cassation.

United NationsIn October 2013, Jordan was reviewed under the Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council: over 170 recommendations were received, of which 126 have been accepted and the remaining recommendations have been "noted". Among these, the recommendations to establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty and acceding to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.The UPR mechanism has become a major tool for reform and has been adopted by the Kingdom's civil society as a useful tool to push the government to improve its record on human rights. For its part, the Jordan Government created in 2014 at the Prime Ministry a permanent human rights coordinator’s office headed by Basel Tarawneh, which has been engaged in this process. In preparation for the upcoming UPR in Geneva in 2018, the government suggested that the national delegation to Geneva is made up of the government and the civil society. Reports of both are to be coordinated and presented as a single national report. On 20 October 2017, the Human Rights Committee completed its consideration of the fifth periodic report of Jordan on its implementation of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Presenting the report, Saja Majali, Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said that since the presentation of its fourth periodic report, many changes had taken place in the region which had had serious ramifications for Jordan. With regard questions raised by experts on the death penalty, the delegation emphasised that Jordan was considered a country that strived to promote human rights. It had taken many measures to protect fundamental freedoms and to ensure that national legislation was in line with ratified international human rights instruments. The Criminal Code imposed penalties for crimes, one of them being the death penalty. It deterred crimes from being committed. That penalty and its implementation were compatible with international texts. Indeed, the Covenant stipulated that the death penalty should be confined to the most serious crimes. The application of the death penalty in Jordan could not take place in an arbitrary manner. It could only be imposed on individuals above the age of 18, and it could not be applied to pregnant women or to women who had just given birth.

In December 2016, Jordan abstained on the Resolution on a Moratorium on the use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.

The Criminal Court sentenced two brothers to death after convicting them of the premeditated murder of their pregnant sister and her husband’s other wife at a farm in Balqa Governorate in November 2014.The two defendants, aged 22 and 28, were each charged with two counts of premeditated murder for the fatal shooting of their 27-year-old sister, who was three-month pregnant, and the second woman, 50, at a farm in Balqa, 35km northwest of Amman on November 8.The two siblings, a shepherd and a restaurant employee, were calm when the presiding judge was reading the verdict details, a senior judicial source said.But when the brothers heard that they received the death sentence, they addressed the court saying that “they killed their sister to cleanse their family honour”, the judicial source told The Jordan Times.The victims’ husband refused to drop charges against the two defendants, and, therefore, the court handed them the maximum punishment, the judicial source explained.Court documents said the defendant’s sister was “engaged in a relationship with a man three months before the incident and became pregnant”.“The case was discovered and the two were married to avoid a scandal and resided in a farm some 20 kilometers away from where the defendants lived,” according to court transcripts.Nevertheless, the court maintained, “the defendants were not pleased by the outcome and plotted to murder their sister to cleanse the family’s honour”.“The two defendants stated that they only intended to kill their sister and that the second woman was accidentally struck by bullets and died,” the court said.January 19 death sentences that were handed by judges Majid Rafayeh, Anwar Abu Eid and Nawaf Samarat will automatically be reviewed by the Court of Cassation within the next 30 days.

(Sources: Jordantimes.com, 22/01/2018)

16 January 2018 :

The Criminal Court sentenced a 24-year-old man to death after convicting him of robbing and murdering a taxi driver in Madaba in June 2012.The court also sentenced a 20-year-old man to 15 years in prison after convicting him of complicity in the premeditated murder and robbery of the 27-year-old taxi driver.“The defendants stood motionless upon hearing the presiding judge read their verdicts,” a senior judicial source, who attended the hearing, told The Jordan Times.Both men were standing trial at the Criminal Court on charges of the premeditated murder of a taxi driver in the Wadi Heidan area in Madaba Governorate, 30 kilometres southwest of Amman, on June 20.Court papers said the defendant plotted to murder the taxi driver because “they thought he was an informant for the authorities”.“The defendants were illegal drug users and believed that the victim was working as an undercover informant for the authorities and had informed the authorities that they were users,” the court documents said.On the day of the murder, the court maintained, the defendants pulled over the victim and asked him to give them a lift to a remote area.“On the way, they asked him to stop and following a brief discussion, the older defendant pulled a gun and the victim attempted to run away but he was shot to death,” according to court papers.The defendants then dragged his body over 400 metres, buried it under rocks, took the victim’s mobile and left, the court maintained.The victim’s body was found four days after the murder in the Wadi Heidan area, while his taxi was discovered in a deserted area in Madaba two days after his disappearance.Sunday’s verdicts will automatically be reviewed by the Court of Cassation within the next 30 days.

A Jordanian military court sentenced a man to death and six others to lengthy prison sentences for belonging to Daesh (ISIS), judicial sources said.The man sentenced to death by hanging had been found guilty of "planning and executing terrorist acts in 2016 inside Jordanian territory targeting alcohol shops," the sources told AFP.The court sentenced five other men to 15 years' hard labor and another to 10 years' hard labor.All were found guilty of "committing terrorist acts," "manufacturing flammable and incendiary materials for illicit use," "promoting the ideas of a terrorist group," and "attempting to join a terrorist group."The seven convicts, aged between 20 and 30, promoted the militant group on social media and often met at the home of the man sentenced to death, the indictment said."They agreed that their first terrorist attack would be on a liquor stores in Amman," it said.The group torched a number of stores with Molotov cocktails before security agencies arrested six of them in February.

Hands off Cain is an international league of citizens and parliamentarians for the abolition of the death penalty in the world. It is a non-profit, non-violent, transnational and trans-national Partito Radicale founded in Brussels in 1993 and recognized in 2005 by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a development co-operation NGO.